Visiting Mike and Priska in Gianyar Bali

My old friend Mike from Santa Barbara moved back to Bali 3 weeks ago with his wife Priska and their daughters, 4 year old Emma and 2 year old Aurelia.

As some people might be aware Priska’s face appears on our homepage. I used a photo from their wedding and since its been online for 20 months Baliblog has been going quite a few people have seen it.

Priska’s family are Christian and originate from Java, but she grew up close to Ubud and can speak Balinese as well as Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese and English.

Seven years living in Nevada City, California operating a Balinese handicraft shop has convinced Mike and Priska that its time to give Bali another chance.

Before Mike and Priska moved back to the US last time they built a house on land they bought close to Tampaksiring which is NE of Ubud along a busy road. Until today her brother Agus had been taking care of the place. Mike invited me up the other day and I set off in the direction of Ubud.

Having a motorbike allows me to check out the narrow lanes and side roads around Ubud and I always find great little guest houses and I really like the route that goes from Jl. Raya Ubud up to Tagalalang. I took this one and passed all kinds of woodcarving workshops and great curving little lanes with lovely views. I then circled around past Tampaksiring and found Mike waiting at the side of the road after I had sms’d him. The route I took from Ubud was about 15km.

Mike’s house is a modern looking 2 storey job with a garden, bale and large amount of open land between it and the road. I met Priska last year in Kuta with Emma but had never met Aurelia. We all gathered under the bale and ate a vegetable curry which came with tuna and quail eggs. Enak sekali!

Aurelia has recently been diagnosed with symptoms similar to typhoid and the doctor gave instructions of how to treat her. I’m sure she’ll be fine.

Mike told me that the land they bought cost 7m rp per ara (an ara is 100sq meters). He had Priska and the relatives buy it as a white face would push the price up. They have about 20 ara all together and Mike has big plans for the place, including building a 4 meter wall to help keep some of the noise from the road out, planting an organic vegetable garden and growing all his vegetables with the help of locals. He also wants a bbq area (yahoo!) and a hot tub. It’s going to be great up there.

After lunch Mike showed me his new Honda Karisma, the 125 cc version of what I’ve got and offered to show me the area. Mike is 6′ 4″ and 240lbs and the Karisma is too small for him but its good enough for scooting around. Personally I’m thinking of buying a Chinese motorbike next year.

We rode up towards Tampaksiring then of to the east down narrow country roads. The area where they live is close enough to Ubud if they want some western interaction but really isn’t on the tourist map. As soon as we departed the main road it was life as usual in the Balinese countryside. Mike showed me a small valley which separated the regencies of Gianyar and Bangli (we were on the Gianyar side) and promised we could take a dip in the river later.

I stopped a couple of time to snap local village temples and the local laundromat. Locals were coming home from the fields and always stopped to talk, eager perhaps to find out what 2 large white creatures were doing in their back yard.

I love the way every street in Bali whether city, village or alley is decorated with the hanging penjors, for Galungan.

Mike and Priska eventually expect to live in Denpasar so the kids can go to the International school in Sanur, maybe living in the sticks on weekends. This is a situation most expats with kids are in. I know people near Mt. Batukaru who home school but then the kids are missing out on the interaction. Mike was telling me about a website about Third Country Kids which deals with American kids who have lived overseas due to their parents careers. Mike said the kids tend to adapt super fast to new environments but the hardest thing is moving back to America because they are so cosmopolitan and the kids back home don’t relate. I think it’s somewhat true for adults too. If you’ve lived overseas for a chunk of your life the local pub doesn’t seem the exciting place it once was.

We rode to a cliff top over looking a forested river valley and hiked down to the river. A dozen locals were hanging around and 2 ladies were selling tea a coffee. Mike is a real star with the Bahasa and immediately got everyone smiling and laughing. We both added to that by bearing our pastey white bodies for a dip in the cold mountain water which was quite fast flowing. We both look like a couple of uncooked cod.

While in the water we chatted about the decision we both made to move to Bali and also how the world is going. I said I think for a lot of people the idea of sitting in a river in the mountains of Bali must seem like a fantastic thing and that it is special because the whole scene around there was locals only. Kuta isn’t special, it’s commercial. That’s what you’ll get every time. If you want something to remember you can find it, but it’s not downtown.

Mike and I rode back to the house for some ‘get to know you’ time with the girls. Emma wanted me to help her with her spelling so I’m buddies with her already. She can speak English and is already correcting Mike with his Bahasa. Living in the village she’ll learn Balinese and Priska’s mum will only speak Javanese to her. She’s a little confused and sometimes combines English and Bahasa, but what a great thing she’ll have in a few years.

• Meeting Priska in Kuta Bali
• Priska, Emma and Agus in Kuta Square Bali
• Riding around on Kuningan in East Bali
• Writing from Ubud Bali
• Meeting Mike in Seminyak Bali

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